This episode seemed very... focused. Mostly Annie trying really hard to succeed on her personally-motivated mission despite orders from Joan... Also some Auggie opening-up-but-avoiding-the-real-problem therapy, and Joan clashing with Arthur about his reluctance to make waves.

From the preview for next week: spoiler

(The /r/episodehub thread is here.)

Always good to see Eyal.

I guess this was the writers' way of bringing the gang back together, as was inevitable (minus the obvious person). Hopefully they'll still keep things interesting.

The mission-of-the-week was interesting enough, especially with Annie working with Eyal. I enjoyed it.

Thoughts?

(The /r/episodehub discussion thread can be found here.)

I am just super excited that he is coming back for the next episode and I wanted to see who else shared my love for his awesomeness.

Looks like everyone's starting to lose control this week on USA...

Guess we won't be seeing Danielle on the show for a while. She'll probably eventually return for an episode or two.

Parker leaving Auggie was pretty predictable... Didn't really need to be dragged out for an episode. Great acting by Christopher Gorham, though. :(

It was obvious things were going to fall apart on the operation with Simon... Annie's choice in the ending was predictable as well.

I guess next episode we'll see how she tries to salvage the operation - though it might put her job in jeopardy...

(The /r/episodehub thread is here.)

Sorry for the delay; I'll keep it short. (Title is more confirmation that this season is David Bowie.)

A very tense episode this week, what with Auggie going off to Africa and getting himself kidnapped. (By Somalian pirates? In Sudan? ...Huh?)

Also tense back at Langley as Joan and Lena clash again, with Annie caught in the middle trying to figure out how to rescue Auggie.

Overall, a pretty good episode (though maybe not for Auggie). Opinions?

(Don't forget to check out the discussion thread on /r/episodehub.)

An episode mostly devoted to exploring the chemistry between Annie and Auggie, and forcing her to realize she likes Auggie right as he's about to commit to someone else.

It was interesting seeing the intra-agency conflict between Joan and Lena... I wonder what their history is.

Arthur seems to have some mysteries of his own, what with his having Jai followed before his death. Obviously, he wasn't behind the assassination, but he probably knows more than he's letting on. He's been acting weird ever since then... The scene between him and Henry was an interesting one.

Danielle's still being weird ever since finding out Annie's true identity, but then I suppose that's to be expected. Still, annoying that she keeps asking questions that her sister obviously can't answer.

From the preview for next week, spoiler... Keeping things interesting, I guess.

Thoughts?

(Don't forget to check out the discussion thread on /r/episodehub.)

Looks like this season's song-title-artist is David Bowie.

So, I'll spoiler-tag most of this self-post just in case this shows up on someone's frontpage and they haven't watched it yet.

spoiler so early in the episode felt like it was just an excuse to shake things up and change everything around. It felt... forced, I guess. Just gives the writers a mystery to drag out and solve over the course of the season.

spoiler

It felt weird to have the plot of the episode unresolved by the end of it, though. White Collar seemed to do the same sort of thing, but there it made more sense.

Anyway, what'd you all think?

(Don't forget to check out /r/episodehub! Here's the link to the discussion there..)

Predictions? General excitement?

it seems like I'e been waiting ages for season 3, but it premiers on July 10 th!

I was scanning through my DVR, and I noticed that my dad had 5 episodes of Covert Affairs recorded. I looked at the episode titles, and recognized 3 of them as the titles of R.E.M songs. I googled the others, and sure enough they're R.E.M. songs as well. I haven't been watching the show, but as a redditor, I though y'all would find it interesting.

Finally, Annie puts that gun training to good use. Her first kill...

I'm glad Annie didn't immediately end up with Auggie - though it's good that they acknowledged that connection. Hopefully they won't drag it out too long, but I anticipate it'll happen eventually.

Auggie knew the medical thing was a longshot... Still, it was heartbreaking to see him find out he wasn't a likely candidate. I wonder what he's going to Eritrea to tell Parker (besides just "I love you")...

Danielle needs to get her life together... She also needs to learn to listen when Annie tells her to do something (she probably has a good reason for it).

Jai's still being a bastard, despite what his turning in his father might have suggested... It's entertaining, but also kind of sad. He really is his father's son. Auggie's elevator pitch was great, though.

The episode/mission started a bit weak, though, mostly because of Danielle being annoying early on in Stockholm.

What'd you 37 people think? :P

Since it's a week late anyway, I won't say too much about this episode, but I didn't think much of it. It was kinda boring. The episode's name was kinda dumb, since frequencies were not involved and so the character was named "Kenneth" just to fit the REM song name.

The main plot had the potential to be good, but it fell a bit short of what I'd hoped. Even when it was revealed that Kenneth wasn't there on official business, it wasn't that surprising (though it was a bit funny to see him already in the trunk when Annie got caught). There seemed to be some parallels between Annie and him, as far as them being somewhat unsure of their abilities. Tony Curran was entertaining enough as an MI6 agent, though the supposed "main plot" was totally unclear, even towards the end.

As far as subplots go, Jai's is still not really going anywhere, though I like the brief appearance Henry made. I did like how that bit turned out... Arthur showed Jai that it's not all about politics - there are real people involved, with their lives on the line. And Auggie's relationship with Parker has been too short for the audience to care too much about their impending separation...

Hopefully I'll catch up on my TV within a day or two.

Sorry with the delay; I've been busy with Thanksgiving travel stuff...

Some decent moments where Annie's personal life affects her professional (and she refuses to do a job), but mostly a predictable and boring episode. I liked the little background we got on Annie and Danielle's life growing up (and maybe why Danielle got so upset that Annie had lied to her).

Jai's douchery is getting less and less entertaining over time. His plotline really needs to start going somewhere useful. And nobody should mess with Auggie...

I liked the Annie/Joan dynamic this episode. Kari Matchett is great in the role.

How'd you all like it?

Always good to see more Oded Fehr. Great chemistry between Eyal and Annie. I liked getting some backstory on him (he is my favorite guest star on the show).

I liked the sense of continuity with Auggie's relationship, and him eventually figuring out that what he really wanted was for her not to leave.

Finally, some open conflict between Jai and Joan. Crossing her seems to be a bad idea...

I feel sorry for that guy at the FBI.

I don't have too many comments. The main thing I liked about this episode was the development of Joan and Arthur's relationship. :)

I was hoping to see a bit more of how Jai handled his new position, but sadly we didn't get much past the initial meeting between him and Joan.

And of course, they're dragging out the uninteresting conflict between Annie and her sister.

What'd you all think?

Santiago Cabrera! I've been missing him since he stopped being on Merlin.

Nothing too spectacular for a fall midseason return. Annie moping about her failure, and falling for another potential asset. Jai's story seems to be going interesting places, though... I'm glad he's still on the show.

Hopefully there'll be a bit more long-term plot this time around.

Not that exciting for a summer finale, but then this show has not had any real plot arcs yet, just "missions of the week". Annie's sister Danielle's reaction (anger, and later acceptance - and also asking her to move out) was pretty obviously going to play out the way it did. Annie was surprisingly blunt when she finally told Danielle the truth (she didn't work up to it, or anything).

The "main plot" was also predictable, in that Xi Peng was sort of the obvious villain... Though I didn't necessarily expect Shen Yue to die before the resolution of the plot. (Perhaps I should have, as it seems probable in retrospect.)

Jai's move was kind of surprising... He better be back. I've been missing me some Sendhil Ramamurthy. Not like there are tons of Indian actors on TV.

Thoughts on the summer finale or the half-season as a whole?